Skip to main content

Sports Minister wants athletes to surpass 10-gold medal target

PUTRAJAYA: The Malaysian contingent have been challenged to go beyond the country’s 10-gold medal target at the Commonwealth Games in New Delhi from Oct 3-14.
And a cool and composed flag bearer Siti Zalina Ahmad said the team were ready to stand up to the challenge.

Yesterday, Youth and Sports Minister Datuk Shabery Cheek threw down the gauntlet on the athletes during a flag-handing ceremony at the centralised training camp in Palm Garden.
Shabery handed over the Malaysian flag to chef-de-mission Tan Sri Abdul Halil Abdul Mutalib and the Jalur Gemilang was then passed on to two-time Commonwealth Games lawn bowl singles gold medallist Zalina in a simple ceremony yesterday.

In a speech to fan the fire among the athletes, Shabery is hoping that the athletes would rise up to his challenge.
“We had set a 30-35 gold medal target at the SEA Games (in Laos) but our athletes did better as they won more than 40 (last year). This was due to their steely determination and their love to bring honour to the country,” said Shabery.

“The NSC (National Sports Council) have set a 10-gold medal target this time for the Commonwealth Games. It will be our best ever if we achieve this. Previously, we won 10 on our home ground in 1998.
“I hope our athletes will not doubt their own abilities but will press on against any form of adversities to bring glory to the country. I hope to see our national anthem played more than 10 times.”
Shabery predicted that the medals will come from badminton, squash, lawn bowls, weightlifting and diving but believed that there were outside chances in several other sports.

“More medals could come from weightlifting and cycling. There is a doping scandal in the Indian team and that has opened up the race for medals for others,” he said.
“Top star Chris Hoy will not be there and this has given our Azizul Hasni Awang a better chance in cycling. There is also an outside chance for us in archery.”

The 31-year-old Zalina, who was choked with emotion after being given the mandate to be Malaysia’s flag bearer, said that she believes Malaysia will surpass the target.
“In lawn bowls, we have won two gold medals, the most in the Commonwealth Games. This time, we are confident of winning four,” she said.

“I am also confident with those from other sports. They have trained hard and it is not impossible to go beyond 10.”

For the record, Malaysia will be represented by 201 athletes in 14 sports in New Delhi.


By RAJES PAUL

THE STAR

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Malaysian junior athletes are just too ‘lembik’

Saya setuju. We are working on more coaches! “ @ManOlimpik : Malaysian junior athletes are just too ‘lembik’ http://t.co/7D7wmHWaNy ” — Khairy Jamaluddin (@Khairykj) June 10, 2014 The benchmark. Can our junior athletes train as hard as Malaysia's world No.1 badminton player, Lee Chong Wei? “IT IS okay lah. The training is not too bad lah. I will try lah … Wah, so hard lah today.” These are some of the common statements I hear from our juniors nowadays. It is not only in badminton. It is the easy-going, laid-back attitude and lack of competitiveness at grassroots level that we have problems producing quality players. I have travelled quite a bit. After ending my decade-long career with the national team, I went to play in the league in Europe. It’s different there. The European athletes know what they want. And they do it with real focus. Even the young ones possess admirable self-control and show a high level of commitment. During my time in the ...
12 comments
Read more

Badminton: Fans rooting for all-Malaysian semis

Reports: RAJES PAUL KUALA LUMPUR: The home fans will be rooting for an all-Malaysian men’s singles semi-final between Lee Chong Wei and Liew Daren. But Chong Wei is more fancied to advance than Daren in quarter-final matches against Indonesian Simon Santoso and Dane Peter Gade-Christensen respectively at the Putra Stadium in Bukit Jalil today. Yesterday, Chong Wei defeated Vietnamese Nguyen Tien Minh 21-9, 18-21, 21-7 in a second-round match that saw the world number one struggling to adapt to the draught in the stadium in the second game. And Daren continued a fairy tale run in his home Open, blowing away a toothless Hsueh Hsuan-yi of Taiwan 21-14, 21-12. Although Choong Wei had to slog for the win over Tien Minh, the top seed and defending champion felt that he was playing better by the day. “I got off to a good start but found it hard to cope with the draught. I tried to catch up after losing my momentum but that did not happen and I decided to conserve energy for ...
11 comments
Read more

Organising Major Sports Events Can Inspire Sports Culture Among The People - Khairy

PUTRAJAYA, June 5 (Bernama) -- Organising major sports events can help inspire sports culture among the people and ensure a healthy lifestyle said Youth and Sports Minister Khairy Jamaluddin. Khairy said the Tour of Malaysia cycling race organised since 1963, for example, can encourage more people to take the sport in a more competitive way or just for recreation purposes. "A study carried out by a world renown medical journal, The Lancet, revealed that 61 percent of adults in Malaysia do not engage themselves in active sports. "A study by the Health Ministry revealed that only 25 percent of Malaysians exercise," he said in his speech when launching the 2013 Tour of Malaysia (Jelajah Malaysia) at the Youth and Sports Ministry, here, Wednesday. "Cycling, though not as popular here as in countries like Denmark, the activity is becoming popular among the people as can be seen through an increase in sale of bicycles for recreation," he sa...
Post a Comment
Read more